The present invention relates to an information recording and reproducing apparatus for recording and/or reproducing information by using a card-shaped information recording medium.
Hitherto, various types of recording media such as optical card, an optical disk, optical tape, etc. have been known as recording media which are used to record information by using a light beam and to reproduce the recorded information by using a light beam. Among them, a large demand for of the optical card has arisen as a recording medium which can be easily manufactured and is easily portable and in which the accessing efficiency is good. In the case of the optical card, a plurality of information tracks are rectilinearly formed and arranged in parallel in a predetermined area on the surface of the card. Therefore, in an information recording and reproducing apparatus using an optical card as a recording medium, a light beam spot relatively continuously moves on the surface of the optical card in the direction of an information track and records and/or reproduces information. After the light beam spot is moved by a predetermined distance, it relatively moves by only a predetermined distance in the direction perpendicular to the track and shifts to another track. The relative movement in the direction of the track and the relative movement in the direction perpendicular to the track are again alternately repeated only a predetermined number of times. Information is recorded on and/or reproduced from the optical card by such a movement of the light beam spot.
However, in the conventional information recording and reproducing apparatus, if an accident such as a general failure, a power failure, or the like occurs, in order to take out an optical card which has been loaded in the apparatus, a cover or the like of the apparatus main body is removed and, thereafter, the optical card must be taken out, so that the operations become extremely complicated. On the other hand, in such operations, there is also a case wherein the apparatus or optical card is damaged. Therefore, there has been proposed an information recording and reproducing apparatus having a mechanism to manually take out an optical card from the inside of the apparatus (JP-A-63-204384). According to such an apparatus, a rotating shaft of a rotating drive source such as a rotary DC motor or the like and a transfer mechanism section are manually driven through a transfer mechanism such as a rubber roller, belt, gear, and the like.
However, for instance, when a voice coil type linear motor is used as a drive source to convey the optical card, since the drive source directly conveys the optical card, it is impossible to execute the manual operation mentioned above.
It is an object of the invention to provide an information recording and reproducing apparatus in which even if an electric power supply from the outside has stopped due to a power failure, a general failure, or the like, an information recording medium loaded in the apparatus can be taken out.
According to the invention, the above object is accomplished by an information recording and reproducing apparatus having emergency conveying means for conveying an information recording medium on a carriage member from the position to record and/or reproduce information to an ejecting port, wherein the emergency conveying means includes means for moving the carriage member to the ejecting port by coming into engagement with the carriage member.